Witness as the 2020 Tesla Roadster goes plaid

Last night, Tesla CEO Elon Musk surprised the automotive world by announcing the 2020 Tesla Roadster. The company offered those who put down a tidy $5,000 reservation fee on the spot a test ride in the future electric sports car.

DragTimes founder and CEO Brooks Weisblat was among what appeared to be hundreds of people who put down a reservation at the event. Weisblat recorded his test drive in the new Roadster. And it looks fast. Really fast.

At the staging area, the Roadster chirped and then simply shot forward at lightning speed. Tesla claims the Roadster will do 0-60 mph in 1.9 seconds.

Oh, and the new fun feature for the super fast Tesla? Plaid Mode, another reference to the movie “Space Balls,” which also gave us Ludicrous Mode. The center screen goes plaid during high rates of acceleration and speed, as shown in the video.

The second video below is from Electrek, which also got a ride and recorded the experience. In this video, we hear the driver comment on various facets of the car, but notably, he said the funky steering wheel will supposedly make it into production. “That’s the plan,” the driver said when referencing the steering wheel. Note, this is a 360-degree video and it works best in Google Chrome.

Tesla requires $5,000 deposits for the 2020 Roadster up front and another $45,000 wired to the company within 10 days. A Founder Series model requires the balance of the full $250,000 purchase price to be paid after that initial deposit.

Tesla says the standard Roadster will go on sale for $200,000 in 2020. The company isn’t the greatest at keeping to production timelines, so we’ll have to wait and see how quickly the other-worldly electric sports car comes to market.

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